The Digitization of Court Processes in African Regional and Subregional Judicial Institutions

Despite information technology (IT) officers’ multiple efforts to develop reliable and efficient electronic justice (e-justice) systems, digitizing court processes still presents several quality challenges associated with IT infrastructure and literacy issues. Grounded in the principles of total quality management, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to identify strategies and best practices IT officers in African regional economic communities (REC) use for digitizing regional and subregional court processes to improve African e-justice systems. The participants included four IT officers working as assistant computer system analysts (ACSA), computer system analysts (CSA), and heads of IT (HIT) in regional and subregional courts of justice with digitized court processes and located in Eastern Africa. Semistructured interviews were conducted with one ACSA, one CSA, and 2 HITs; in addition, 34 organizational documents were gathered from three case organizations and analyzed. Six main themes emerged from the thematic data analysis: involve and collaborate with all the stakeholders, formulate system requirements based on end users’ needs, design the system based on a validated blueprint, create and implement a training plan, use ICT policies and procedures to achieve quality, and use an IT service helpdesk to achieve end users’ satisfaction. A key recommendation is for IT officers to use end users’ perception and satisfaction as quality indicators in identifying strategies for digitizing regional and subregional court processes to improve African e-justice systems. The implications for positive social change include the potential to improve court employees\u27 job performance, facilitate access to judicial services in African RECs, and reduce case processing delays for African REC citizens